The Valley of Eternal Darkness had changed beyond recognition. Lilith slowly turned her head, surveying the area around the violet altar.
The mass of rubble that had haunted this place just three days ago was gone. Thanks to the superhuman strength of the succubi and the mindless yet systematic labor of the skeleton host, the territory had been almost completely cleared. Now, instead of heaps of cracked stone and rotten beams, there were leveled plazas and clear walkways. Even the valley's dark aura seemed more... organized.
Exactly three days had passed since Lilith arrived in this world as the Monarch. During that time, her small squad had worked almost without pause, purging the Ruins of Fallen Darkness of the remnants of an ancient civilization.
Lilith sat on the steps of the altar, resting her chin on her hand, when a long, high-pitched moan suddenly shattered the silence. She glanced behind her without much surprise.
Kala was sitting propped against a pillar, holding Mina in a tight grip. With an expression of clear boredom - but ruthless precision - the red-haired warrior was toying with her smaller companion's nipple, tugging it aggressively back and forth.
Lilith sighed and looked away. Over the last two days, she had grown accustomed to such sights. More interestingly, Mina - usually so quick to pick a fight - had stopped resisting. She let Kala do almost anything to her.
"I can't help it... no one is selling these damn buildings on the Demon King Market," Lilith muttered, returning to her browsing of the trade interface.
"Yeah, yeah..." Kala tossed out, squeezing Mina's breast so hard the girl let out another squeak. "But somehow a [Simple Warehouse] and [Stone Walls] were suddenly available for purchase, weren't they?"
Lilith looked at her seriously, narrowing her crimson eyes. "You know perfectly well that I'd also like to sleep in a comfortable bed instead of under the open sky like some wild beast. But the market is pitiless."
The problem had turned out to be mundane yet acute. Despite possessing a fortune in gold, the succubi realized that there wasn't a single building on their territory suitable for sleeping. The Bone House, while functional, was saturated with the stench of death and freezing necromantic energy - lying down there bordered on masochism.
Lysandra, mindful of aesthetics and energy recovery, had proposed buying residential blueprints. Lilith immediately posted advertisements, offering sums that should have knocked other Lords off their feet. Yet, no one responded. Most players were barely making ends meet, and those who did have building plans held onto them to ensure the survival of their own armies.
The only things she managed to "snatch" from desperate sellers were the plans for [Stone Walls], which allowed her to begin fencing off her territory, and a [Simple Warehouse].
The latter building already stood a few meters away. It was a crude, stone block with a capacity of 500 cubic meters. The system proudly informed her: [Normal decay rate of Level 1 materials: -50%.]
For a brief moment, Lilith had hoped the warehouse could serve as a bedroom, but reality quickly checked those dreams. Inside were only rows of cold stone shelves and a floor as hard as rock, which was even worse to lie on than the grass beneath the altar.
Ultimately, Lilith gave up and used the building for its intended purpose. She filled the shelves with rare herbs and fruits the girls brought from the forest, along with all the raw materials that had been cluttering her personal inventory.
"We have to find a plan for a mansion, or at least a tavern," Lilith muttered to herself, watching the rising gold tally in the corner of her screen.
Lilith glanced once more at the description of the [Simple Warehouse] in her interface. Despite the lack of beds, she smirked, feeling proud of her own mercantile sense. 300 gold was a ridiculous price for such functionality.
[SIMPLE WAREHOUSE – LEVEL 1]
Special function: Thermal insulation and passive cooling.
Effect: Decay rate of food and herbs reduced by 50%.
In the Forest of Chaos, where an unnatural, stifling heat prevailed, this building was priceless. Most food items rotted here in the blink of an eye, and she was one of the few who could now stockpile. However, the joy of a good deal quickly gave way to rising frustration. Lilith refreshed the chat and the market for the hundredth time, but still saw only offers for stones, wood, and cheap meat.
"Dammit! I'm going to build something myself if we don't find those cursed plans!" she suddenly exploded, throwing her virtual interface window into the void.
In that same instant, Lysandra dropped from the sky like a white hawk. She landed gracefully, her wings kicking up a cloud of dust from the cleared plaza. She smiled crookedly at the fury of her Monarch.
"Without a schematic, we have no technical means to erect system buildings on our territory," Lysandra announced in her cool, matter-of-fact voice. "The only way out would be to acquire units with innate construction skills, like goblin engineers or dwarves. But..." Lysandra tilted her head sadly to the side. "None of us have the slightest clue about that."
Hearing this, Lilith let out a groan of helplessness and fell onto her back onto the hard, packed earth. She spread her arms and screamed at the dark clouds: "What the hell do I need these thousands of gold for if I can't buy anything with them?! We've worked like maniacs, wiped out half the forest, and we're sleeping on rocks!"
In a flash of white light, Lysandra assumed her human form. She walked over to the reclining Lilith and sat beside her cross-legged, placing a hand on her stomach in a steadying gesture.
"Let's give it time," she whispered soothingly. "Most Demon Kings are at the stage we were at three days ago. Clearing territory, first units... They haven't had time to venture deeper into the woods to find hidden treasure chests or rare schematics. For now, they're only trading what they have on hand."
Lilith sighed, nodding, but Lysandra's touch on her stomach caused a sudden, unsettling heat to flare in her lower belly. She closed her eyes, and a notification about her first, freshly earned talent flickered before her vision. When she read the description, she nearly spontaneously combusted from shame.
[NEW TALENT: EXHIBITIONIST]
Requirements: Spending 72 hours naked in an open area in the presence of other beings.
Effect: Being naked in the fresh air increases pleasure felt by 2x.
Lilith violently covered her face with her hands, wanting to vanish from the face of the earth. She looked through her fingers at Lysandra, her voice trembling with embarrassment. "We need... we need to get some clothes as soon as possible..."
She realized in that second the absurdity of their situation. For all three of those days, busy with fighting, trading, and building, four powerful succubi had been running through the woods and ruins completely naked, like some primal pack of savages, without a second thought.
Lysandra smirked, glancing at her own naked body, then at Kala and Mina in the distance. She didn't deny it. Indeed, they looked like a band of beautiful but wild escapees from paradise.
Seeing the crimson flush on her Monarch's cheeks, Lysandra couldn't resist a slight, almost predatory smile. She leaned over her, her silver hair tickling Lilith's shoulder.
"You don't have to torment yourself so much, Lilith," she whispered in a voice dripping with amusement. "You aren't alone in this. We received the talent as well. After all, the nature of a succubus loves freedom and the gaze of others - even if it's only the gaze of trees and skeletons."
Lilith groaned quietly, hiding her face in her hands, but Lysandra wasn't about to stop.
"Besides, each of us has evolved in a slightly different direction over these last three days," she added, glancing toward the altar. "Mina, for example, gained the [Masochist] talent, which explains why she's been so eager to let Kala manhandle her lately. And Kala herself? Well, the system officially granted her the [Sadist] talent. They suit each other perfectly, don't you think?"
Lilith peeked through her fingers and smiled even more crookedly than before. She looked at the pair, who were now completely lost in their own strange world.
Kala was sitting on the ground, holding Mina by the hair and tilting her head back, while with her other hand she pinched her thighs with almost artistic cruelty, leaving red marks on the pale skin. Mina, instead of crying or fleeing, had an expression of strange, blissful numbness on her face. Her fingers dug into the earth, and a quiet, rhythmic humming came from her lips - sounding more like a plea for more than a complaint.
"I won't even comment on that..." Lilith muttered, looking away from the scene. "At least you guys haven't had to sleep for these three days. I'm still 'new' in this body. I don't have the skills unlocked yet to recover my strength solely through desire energy. My body still demands normal, human rest, and sleeping on this..." She slapped her hand against the hard, packed earth. "...is torture."
Sighing with growing frustration, Lilith reopened the trade chat window. Her fingers rapidly scrolled through lists of offers, ignoring the hundredth advertisement for "fresh bones" or "rusty pickaxes." She was looking for anything: [Tent], [Hut], [Tavern], [Wooden Shack]... anything with a roof and at least a bit of soft ground.
Lysandra didn't interrupt her search. She sat in cross-legged silence, hands resting on her knees, observing with a slight, big-sisterly smile as Kala began "massaging" Mina's back with her heavy, armor-clad feet, and the little green succubus arched into a bow, letting out a sound that resembled a squeal of delight.
In the Valley of Eternal Darkness, peace reigned, but it was a peace underscored by the wild, primal nature of their race - which was slowly but inexorably pushing out Lilith's human inhibitions.
***
At the same time, far beyond the borders of the Valley of Eternal Darkness, in a place where the stifling fumes of marshes mingled with primitive shack architecture, a completely different atmosphere prevailed.
In a hidden goblin village, amidst low, twisted huts made of mud and bone, a group of beings gathered who, at first glance, looked like ordinary monsters. However, their eyes burned with an unnatural, human intelligence. These were players who had been reborn as Heroes in the bodies of goblins.
One of them, a short, green-skinned individual with exceptionally sharp teeth and a rusty dagger at his belt, spat on the ground, staring at a flashing red system message that had just appeared before his eyes.
[WARNING: THE SAFETY PERIOD FOR DEMON KINGS WILL END IN 4 DAYS!]
"You hear that?" he cackled, twirling the dagger in his hand with the skill of a professional killer. "The safety period ends in four days. That only means one thing."
Another goblin, more powerful than the rest and clad in scraps of leather armor, looked up from the fire where rats were roasting. His face twisted into a nasty grin.
"So, just a little longer and we can finally legally kill those fucking Demon Kings?" he asked, his voice sounding like stone grinding against stone.
"Haha! Exactly!" shouted a third one, striking his fist against his open palm. "For the last few days, killing these pathetic, wild monsters in the forest has been just too boring and too slow. Exp is coming in like a nosebleed. Apparently, killing even one Demon King will bring a reward at least a hundred times greater than clearing a whole cave!"
The village filled with raspy laughter. To them, this world was not a struggle for survival, but a grand hunt in which they were the hunters. While Lilith worried about the lack of a roof over her head and the price of food, these "Heroes" were already sharpening their weapons, dreaming of the riches and experience they would gain as soon as the protective barriers fell.